How It All Started

In 2001, co-founder Tim Midgley’s mother Candy was struggling with her physical well-being. She was a cancer survivor but despite support from her family, her condition was worsening. She couldn’t walk without a walker and required ongoing dialysis. During this time, Candy’s husband, Tim’s father John was her rock. He was with her when she needed the emotional, physical, and psychological support.

When John passed away in 2013, Candy’s emotional and physical health hit rock bottom within a few months. She felt emotionally supported when Tim and his siblings visited, but it was a temporary respite. Tim and his partner Yoo-Sun decided to help Candy take control of her well-being. They set up a support system for Candy on Facebook. They curated a list of Quests and convinced Tim’s siblings to contribute to this movement by encouraging Candy to list out specific goals — no matter how big or small or ridiculous they were. They wanted her to try new things and make small incremental changes in her everyday life. The clear process made it easier for the family to follow Candy’s progress. It also encouraged some of the more passive personalities within the family to join her in trying something new.

Candy’s overall fitness and wellness dramatically improved. Two years later, she’s now jumped off a swing, participated in three family 5K charity walks, aced a wall-sit challenge, slept straight for eight hours (a rarity!), started Tai Chi, spent more time cooking with her grandchildren and is DIEMlife’s very first Quest Master. The original, of course.

The Quests led other family members to find more fun ways to connect with each other and with Candy. Celebrating the small wins from assigned Quests gave Candy increased confidence and her close network of family and friends understand her better than ever. Whether it’s creating new dance moves with her grandkids (trust us, this happens!) or preparing meals for the homeless with her daughters, Candy does everything more mindfully now. This all adds up to Candy being stronger and happier every day.

As Tim, Yoo-Sun, and the entire Midgley family witnessed Candy’s progress, they also saw the power of this process. They all knew these Quests had to be replicated into something more. Facebook posts set the pace for the original Quests to be tracked but it lacked the tools to bring Quests to life.

The Quests needed a new home.

Within a few months… the DIEMlife team was born.

DIEMlife | Our Team

Who We Are

True to form, the founders of DIEMlife are no strangers to wellness, self-improvement, and forming personal connections. Tim and Andrew met on a mountain part way through a 48-hour extreme endurance event called the “Winter Death Race” (no, really). Yoo-Sun and Tim are what happens when passions for music, fitness, costume parties, and mutual friends intersect.

What seemed like random events, slowly morphed into a fated meeting of the minds. Tim, Yoo-Sun, and Andrew all share a thirst to innovate, a desire for self-improvement and a need to help others. It’s the fuel behind the fire to complete their ultimate group Quest—the creation of DIEMlife.

Timothy Midgley
Strategy

“I want to inspire those around me to build better legacies.”

Tim has more than 15 years of startup and corporate experience consulting in business innovation, growth and technology development. He is known as the strategy and tactics guy and is first in line to help brainstorm ideas and implement solutions to get a job done. Tim plays the long game and pushes the envelope in every aspect of his life.

Tim is the man with a plan at DIEMlife. Actually, he’s the man with a Plan A and a ton of Plan B’s. He’s constantly connecting the dots and making new ones.

When Tim isn’t working he can be found researching his next endurance challenge (suggestions welcome), meeting other entrepreneurs around the world or producing and recording his next EP, which may or may not involve squeaking on his alto sax.

Tim’s Favorite Quests:1. Completing the Wim Hof 10-week “Becoming the Iceman” course
2. Create your own adventure at the park with my Mom
3. Living and working remotely for 30 days

Yoo-Sun Park
Content and Communications

“My purpose is to help people find their perfect balance of confidence and curiosity so that they can live the best quality of their life.”

A former Juilliard violinist, Yoo-Sun is a master of music, movement and body mechanics. With more than 20 years of professional coaching and teaching experience, she now trains clients and teachers alike at SLT, the biggest megaformer studio based out of NYC. A disciplined soul, Yoo-Sun is the person who takes individuals to the next level and helps them reach their highest possible potential.

Yoo-Sun is the queen of Quests at DIEMlife, helping individuals succeed on their own journey of self-improvement and development. Not only is she the voice of the brand, but she’s also the rock to lean on when the going gets tough.

Yoo-Sun believes in water over coffee, that a good musical playlist has a beginning, middle, and end, and that a handful of chewy ginger candies could be the key to happiness.

Yoo-Sun’s Favorite Quests:1. Coming out of music retirement with a performance for my friends and family with fellow musicians, actors, and dancers2. Becoming a Certified Mobility|WOD Coach
3. Celebrating a birthday at The Rock in Zanzibar

Andrew Coleman
Development

“I want to learn something new every day and leave anything I touch (or code) better than I found it so that I can constantly improve myself and this world.”

With a degree in Computer Science, an MBA, and 4 Systems Architecture Certifications from MIT, Andrew has a thorough understanding of how to make things happen. He is a life-hacker, eternally destined to improve workflows and develop systems that contribute to a sustainable and scalable infrastructure.

What does that even mean? Just know he’s the backbone of our operations, the builder of our dreams and layers 1 through 5 of our 7-layer dip. Andrew keeps DIEMlife up and running all day, every day.

Andrew has never met a mountain he hasn’t wanted to hike. He wanted to be like his dad when he was a kid. If you ever see him at a party, ask him about the time he stumbled across Tim in the woods after being up for 36 hours straight in single-digit temps.

Andrew’s Favorite Quests:1. Participating and winning a 72-hour Ultra, and completing 157 miles in roughly 60 hours of it2. Doing something uncomfortable every week, like changing sleep/wake up times, intermittent fasting, and cold showers in the morning3. Reading a new book every 5 weeks